Oya no nanahikari (proverb) : A child get huge benefit from his or her parents who is rich and powerful.
Here’s my personal opinion.
Please note that this does not have any academic basis.
I think it contains a sense of scorn. They are often targeted because of their good luck. Their parents can buy them anything. They have opportunity to do something special that other children born into ordinary families may not experience.
However, there are not only good things for them. As they grow, they start to be aware of the feat of their parents. More over, being compared to the parents is an unavoidable problem. So, if you are called oya no nanahikari by people around you, you must prove that they’re completely wrong by showing your own success. This is where their battle begins. They struggle to chase away the influence of their parents and finally may obtain complete freedom.
For instance, let’s take a look at Utada Hikaru’s case aka hikki. She’s a brilliant musician. Her mother is also the great singer Fuji Keiko. At the early stage of her music career, she may have been called “oya no nanahikari”. I mean she was able to succeed in the music industry thanks to her mother. But now, no one associates her success with her mother’s fame because no one can imitate Utada’s music. Her debut song “Automatic” was a proof of that. The song was so sensational and cool that I don’t think anybody cared who her mother was.
Oya no nanahikari is worldwide phenomenon. I can tell many example of Japanese celebrities, including Miyazaki Hayao and goro. For my own defense, I would say his son is also great animation maker. I barely know examples from overseas. I think there are a lot of good examples than in Japan if you look at something like European dynasties.
Relationship between child and parents is quite interesting. When raising children, most parents complain that their children don’t listen. They kept telling their children to study all the time. I forgot who said this but children don’t heed their parents but imitate what they did. If parents wants their children to study, they should study themselves.
I’m sure that education is absolutely important element of success. When we look at the parents of outstanding people, we often find that the parents are also excellent and have interesting backgrounds. I’m just amazed to see how many such case is around us. I think there should be some reason why outstanding people emerge into the world. One of the reasons is obviously education by parents. So educational disparity is just widening.
Please check other expressions related to parents;
親の脛をかじる(oya no sune wo kajiru)
親の心子知らず(oya no kokoro ko shirazu)
親の顔が見たい(oya no kao ga mitai)
see you bye Arigato
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